Recent Comments

THANK YOU!! I couldn't agree with you more! I just moved here from Kirkland, WA last July and I'm already thinking about moving back. I'm already sick of all the people here in California that have such self entitlement attitudes and such disregard for life they think the traffic laws don't apply to them. Since I've been here I've almost been in several accidents and almost been run over in a crosswalk but these people don't care! They are reckless A$$holes!!

The way I see it, at least in Los Angeles (and San Diego--the other counties of California I've been in have it far less pronounced than these two), a lot of the problems seen on the roads can be attributed to a culture that places great value on speed. Essentially, people in L.A and S.D. are trained from an early age to have their gratification instant, and thus they never learn patience. This is why drivers will speed up to block you when you want to change lanes, this is why tailgating is so rampant, this is why they rarely ever come to a complete stop at stop signs, and this is why there's so much lane-weaving: These are drivers who want to go fast and see slowing down or stopping as an admission of inferiority.
For the record, people blocking to stop me when I'm changing lanes is an extremely common occurrence that I figured out a good way to ensure you can get into the lane you need fairly quickly: As long as the traffic is not too congested, just slow down by about 5 miles per hour and get in behind them. The driver trying to block you is doing so either because they're not paying attention, or they cannot stand the thought of someone coming over in front of them. In both cases, they will gladly let you in behind them. (Congestion creates a problem because it means there will be someone else behind them who will think the same thing, and the person behind them likewise, and so forth.)
It is an animal instict at work. For most creatures, seeing another creature with their back turned to them indicates the back-turned creature has superior authority. Likewise, a creature taking up a space behind another creature is an act of submission. For some reason, Californian drivers fall to these animal instincts and treat their cars as extensions of themselves. They don't want you getting into their lane in front of them because, subconsciously, they interpret it as you asserting authority over them, but they'll let you in behind them because they see it as you acknowledging their superiority. That's what I think.

California people tailgate because there's so many damn people, if you didn't, the line of cars would stretch from MEXICO to Oregon. They added 800,000 illegal alien drivers the other year. So that's why. As long as they are not crazy close which I define as you can't even see their headliights behind you. Otherwise, that's how close people drive in RUSH hour. Otherwise, in normal conditions, they're just tailgating and being aholes if it's not rush hour.

Why do Los Angeles driver tailgate, I was coming home on the 60 fwy west bound traffic was almost at a stop and this female person in a infinite climb on my bumper so close I could not see her front plate in my rear view camera I got over then she cut me off and flip me off this was a accident waiting to happen and she ended up on the same off ramp on the 10 fwy west. crazy

About

I’ve driven in California since 1991. I’ve spent many trips running up and down the state as well as driving in many other states. After all of this driving, I became fed up with how bad California drivers on. I wanted to point out what they do to either help change a few drivers or at least entertain the rest of the world with Californian’s horrible driving.

I’m located in Orange County in a couple of the richest areas. I see every type of car that is out there in this area. It’s like a car show. Going to a car show isn’t exciting anymore because you see most of the cars driving around anyway. I also work at a place where people buy all the different types of cars. We have Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Lotus, etc. So you can even see a lot of the cars in the work parking lot.

Disclaimer: You’re on your own with these tips. They are not the official law and in no way represent what you should be doing should a cop pull you over.